CHAPTER 6: PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
6.3 H OW THE B ENEFICIARIES OF THE F UND FEEL IT HAS AFFECTED THEIR L IVES
6.3.3 Female-headed Households
The majority of the participants in this study became female heads of households due to their husbands' selfishness and unkindness, and others because their husbands did not have the means. I use the literature to clarify the ideas above. Due and Gladwin (1991) are among the few scholars who distinguish between de facto and de jure. A de facto female-headed
household is one in which the woman makes decisions about family expenditure because her husband, the true leader of the home, is away, even if he does send financial support for the family on occasion (Due & Gladwin, 1991). A de jure female-headed household, on the other hand, is one in which the woman makes all decisions regarding the family's income and expenses (Takane, 2009; Due & Gladwin, 1991). According to Due and Gladwin (1991),
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single mothers, divorced women, and widows fall into the category of female-headed households.
An example of a de facto female-headed household was the case of Lindiwe, whose husband worked in Botswana and often sent financial support for the management of the home.
Lindiwe stated:
Although my husband would provide for the family but there are other things that I needed as a woman and he would not give me because he regards it as less important.
Further the fact that he has other children besides my three children led to less support on my side. So, from the business I would buy food, pay transport fees for the children.
I bought the furniture of my choice, and I am able to fill fuel in the family car (Primary Data, 2020).
Nonhlanhla was a de jure female head of household. She was a single mother with two children. She said:
Being a single parent and raising two children on my own, I feel I have to have
sufficient profit in order to take care of the household needs such as paying school fees, paying medical bills among many necessities (Primary Data, 2020).
When I asked her if the loan from the Inhlanyelo fund helped her, Thoko, a de jure head of the household and a widow with four grown up graduate children said:
Yes, because I am able to take care of my family, my children have completed school. I was able to pay school fees when my husband could not afford. Most of my children attend tertiary in South African universities so I had to pay the tuition fees. Also, my husband was working at railway and he was not staying at home so I was providing for my family because the money he gave me was not enough to do all the household needs (Primary Data, 2020).
While these classifications of female-headed households appear to make a lot of sense, they do not cover every situation in which a household could be female-headed. For example, how do you describe a household in which the sole source of income and expenditure for the household's well-being is a woman, even though her husband is living in the same house but never contributes to the household's upkeep? This is true for the vast majority of the
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participants I interviewed. Some of the women lived with their male partners, but the woman was solely responsible for 80 to 100% of the household expenses.
According to Margaret:
I did achieve my goals since I wanted something better for my homestead and now, I have achieved it and I am able to cater for 80% of the household responsibilities. My husband is a teacher. However, he feels that if there is maize at home everything is there. He always says he has no money. If you ask for money from him that would go towards improving the household’s livelihood (Primary Data, 2020).
Alice’s story as a de jure head of household was similar to Margaret’s: the male partner earned an income but refused to contribute, leaving the wife primarily responsible for the well-being of the household. While the male was the household's leader, the female was often tasked with "maintaining the household, cultivating the fields, and child bearing" (Booth, 1983, p.52). According to Alice:
I have become a bread winner while he is sleeping drunk behind the house (Primary Data, 2020).
Ngabisa, married with three young children said:
My husband gets odd jobs here and there. He would often get a contract for three months and it would take time before he gets another one. So, I have to do most of the things around the household as he doesn’t have a stable income. Therefore, we can’t depend on his salary. The maintenance of the household, buying electricity, clothing the children and buying bags of cement, are examples of some of the things that I do
without the support of my spouse. When he does get a temporary job, he would also contribute towards the maintenance of the household (Primary Data, 2020).
Zandie was a one-of-a-kind case in that she was single and did not have any children at the time of the interview. She did not fit into any of the categories of female head of household, despite the fact that she was the primary breadwinner because her grandparents were elderly and retired. Sonto was classified as a de facto head of the household because her boyfriend was in South Africa and she was responsible for the children and family expenses.
Female-headed households are more vulnerable to poverty because they have limited income and spend more on consumption and household well-being. According to the data obtained,
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the implication is that whatever income generated from the loan given by the Inhlanyelo Fund was used primarily for consumption, with very little remaining to be invested in the business.
In the long run, as Martey et al. (2014) observe that this leads to a lack of income and wealth accumulation, as well as difficulties in loan repayment. This limits one's ability to be
empowered.
The majority of studies on female-headed households do not look at women beneficiaries of microfinance who are heads of households. This study covers all aspects of their lives and shows that their experiences and views on their living conditions and how to better their lives is necessary in order to identify the effects of participating in microfinance.